Research lines / Teachers  

 

1. THEORY AND METHOD IN GEOGRAPHY

 

Amélia Damiani, Ana Fani Alessandri Carlos, César Ricardo Simoni Santos, Élvio Martins, Fábio Contel, Heinz Dieter Heidemann, Marcos Bernardino de Carvalho, Manoel Sousa Neto, Ricardo Mendes Antas Junior.

 

The methodological openness within this research line is based on Geography as a science and so in its particular foundations, as a human and social science, and also in those philosophical ones, meaning its notional and conceptual contributions, situated in social practice and in the scope of the sciences history. This openness considers the field of geographic thought in its conceptual complexity, aware of the social reality interpreted, as a social process, and inserted in relational nexuses with other fields of scientific knowledge.

The complexity of the conceptual collection of the geographic thought means the opening to different theoretical-methodological tendencies and, through them, recognizing the conflicts in the plane of science put by each epoch. Thus, this line of research is not understood as a strict articulation of conceptions, but as an open totality, tensioned by even contradictory worldviews. Geographical conceptions are examined in their movement of constitution, in their interpretive power and in their limits, aiming to project the field of geography to new possibilities and dialogues. This line of research therefore encompasses the History of Geographical Thought, understood not as a chronology but as a search for an understanding of the historicity of geographic thought. This means immersing in its philosophical universe, in a perspective that links scientific and philosophical thought and at the same time, to the social conditions of their production. That is the tripod (interrelated) - formed by the philosophy of science, by "world-moment" and by science within its own institutionalization-consolidation-reproduction - allows us to weave the history of geographic thought.

 

2. POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY, PLANNING AND NATURAL RESOURCES

 

Ana Maria Marangoni, André Martin, Eduardo Yázigi, Marcos Bernardino de Carvalho, Neli Aparecida de Mello-Théry, Wanderley Messias da Costa, Vanderli Custódio, Wagner Costa Ribeiro

 

In this line of research, Political Geography and Geopolitics are understood as science, ideology and political practice considering different historical contexts, involving the history of thought and the current theoretical debate in its movement of critical renewal including in a multiscale approach. This line includes the analysis and interpretation of the New World Order under the impulse of globalization, as well as a national matter, nationalities, federalism, autonomist movements and the new regionalization of the world. Studies on planning in their multiple possibilities and on Territorial Zoning as a strategy of order and political action compose an analytical part of this line, as well as the interpretation of the paradigmatic transformations of the concept of natural resource considering new technologies and their implications. The contemporary crisis facing the socio-environmental paradigm, the international environmental order and the international environmental agreements, as well as its implementation in Brazil are part of the analytical scope of this line.

 

3. CARTOGRAPHY, GEOPROCESSING, IMAGES AND REPRESENTATIONS OF GEOGRAPHIC SPACE

 

Fernanda Padovesi, Hervé Théry, Marcello Martinelli, Mario De Biasi, Reinaldo P. P. Machado.

 

It is increasingly evident that cartographic products are not only representations of space; they are structural elements of the production of space itself. The aim of this line is to attend the research in Geography that uses data and information collection and that perform the treatment, processing and, finally, the visualization and presentation of the analysis of the geographic information and synthesis of the space, through mapping (using the graphical language and also representations in images, maps, graphs and networks). In order to do so, it opens space for the discussion and research of the spatiality of the geographic objects and their attributes and epistemological and pedagogical issues inherent to this field of study. The questions about cartography, geoprocessing, its techniques and methods (both analogue and digital), and its role in the production of a renewed geographic knowledge are also addressed and deepened.

 

4. GEOGRAPHY OF THE CITY AND THE URBAN

 

Amália Inés G. Lemos, Ana Fani A. Carlos, Amélia Damiani, Anselmo Alfredo, César Ricardo Simoni Santos, Eduardo Yázigi, Fábio Contel, Francisco C. Scarlato, Glória Alves, Isabel Alvarez, Marta Inez Medeiros Marques, Odette Seabra, Ricardo Mendes A. Junior, Rodrigo Valverde, Sandra Lencioni, Simone Scifoni, Silvana Maria Pintaudi, Vanderli Custódio.

 

The present research line has the critical analysis of the production of the urban space as its objective, in a period in which the capitalist modernization tends to impose itself in all places of the Brazilian territory. The study of the urbanization process allows us to identify the concrete conditions of formation and functioning of the cities, also showing the contradictions between the institutional practices and the social movements for better housing, work, transportation, education and culture. The critical perspective of the study of cities and the urban also enables the understanding of daily life, public policies, social processes and uses of space that characterize Latin American and Brazilian urbanization in its different scales (local, metropolitan, regional, national and global).

 

5. TERRITORY, ECONOMY AND REGIONAL DINAMICS

 

Anselmo Alfredo, Armen Mamigonian, César Ricardo Simoni Santos, Dieter Heidemann, Fábio Betioli Contel, Carlos de Almeida Toledo, Hervé Théry, Léa Francesconi, Mónica Arroyo, Neli Aparecida de Mello-Théry, Rita de Cássia Ariza da Cruz, Ricardo Mendes Antas Junior, Rodrigo Ramos, Valverde, Rodrigo Valverde, Rosa Ester Rossini, Sandra Lencioni.

 

This line of research places the socio-spatial dimension of economics and politics at the forefront, analysed under various theoretical approaches. The reconfiguration of the territory and the dynamics of flows of all kinds, related to productive restructuring and changes in work processes, particularly resulting from the confrontations of the capitalist crisis in the contemporary world, highlight the need to develop research on the transformations in production and circulation, migration, tourism, labour mobility and the territorial division of labour necessary to understand urban and regional dynamics.

 

6. GEOGRAPHY, EDUCATION AND TEACHING

 

Amália Inês Geraiges de Lemos, Fernanda Padovesi, Glória Alves, Léa Francesconi, Marcos Bernardino da Silva, Maria Eliza Miranda, Nídia Pontuscka, Sonia Castellar, Valéria de Marcos.

 

This line of research is guided by the reading and critical analysis of Geography to reach innovation in the educational field, linking theory and practice to different focuses. It covers studies and methodologies specific of the geographic researches related to the educational phenomenon and the teaching and learning of Geography in Brazil and in the World. It articulates studies that keep renewed the tradition of accumulated research in the educational sphere of USP such as: teaching and learning Geography in the perspective of several pedagogies; educational practices of field studies and case studies; tendencies of the curriculum of Geography and the formation of teachers; teaching practices and knowledge; creation and analysis of teaching materials; language and technology in the teaching of Geography and teacher training; urbanization and education; teaching of geography in rural areas; cartography teaching; relationship between ethno geography and school education; teaching Geography and gender issues in education; problems of school education; educational policies; relationship between economy and education; educational reforms and teacher training; contemporary didactics of geography teaching; issues of interdisciplinarity and teaching of geography; school demands and their spatialization; and, the impact of educational outcomes on society, culture, economics and politics.

 

7. TERRITORY, AGRICULTURE AND SOCIETY

 

Anselmo Alfredo, Ariovaldo Umbelino de Oliveira, Larissa M. Bombardi, Marta Inez Medeiros Marques, Rosa Ester Rossini, Valéria de Marcos

 

This line of research focus on the understanding of the different territorial forms of the agrarian question in Brazil and in the world, starting from the study of the uneven and contradictory development of capitalism in rural areas, in order to unveil the bases on which this question is founded. It seeks to understand the territorial transformations triggered by capitalism in the countryside in its industrial and financial-corporate faces, with special emphasis on the analysis of the processes of privatization and production of nature, labour mobility, subordination of peasant agriculture and subjection of land rent to capital as well as the forms of resistance that emerge from these processes. In this sense, the study of social movements in their different manifestations and the alternative forms of territorialisation and organization of production in rural areas, as well as the changes in the rural-urban relationship, gains a central role.